General News

The UNC Charlotte Staff Council has been part of University governance since 1976. To acknowledge the former council leaders, the 2014-15 Staff Council commissioned a plaque to honor them for “their generosity, support and guidance to our campus.”

The plaque was unveiled during a luncheon today, held as part of the annual Staff Council retreat at the Harris Alumni Center.

One of UNC Charlotte’s Titan Arums or “corpse flowers” is preparing to bloom in the next seven to 10 days, so it is time to give it a name.

“Amorphophallus titanum or the Titan Arum, which is native to Sumatra, is considered one of the rock stars of the plant world,” said Paula Gross, interim director of the UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens.

The yet to be named flower is one of two Titan Arums the Botanical Gardens purchased from California in 2008; at that time, the plants were roughly five years old.

Following the massacre of nine black worshipers at historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, faculty members from UNC Charlotte’s College of Liberal Arts & Sciences have been providing context and commentary locally, nationally and internationally. They are drawing upon their extensive expertise and research, including books and other materials they have published on related subjects.

College of Arts + Architecture Assistant Professor Ming-Chun Lee and students from the Master of Urban Design program will present their work at the next Civic by Design Forum on Tuesday, July 14, at the Levine Museum of the New South. The event is free and open to the public.

Rick Hudson, senior project manager for the Data Science Initiative, will be the guest on the July 9 edition of “The Live Wire,” Inside UNC Charlotte’s streaming webcast. He will discuss the Data Science Initiative and SOPHI, a large data repository that is being developed.

Watch “The Live Wire” via computer or mobile devices starting at 2 p.m.

Counselors, therapists and scholars from across North Carolina recently traveled to UNC Charlotte for a conference on play therapy featuring the leading expert in the field.

The College of Education’s Multicultural Play Therapy Center hosted the five-day workshop. It featured discussions on the underlying theory of play therapy and provided practical tips for employing the technique, which allows young children to explore and deal with issues by expressing themselves through play in a controlled environment.

Construction crews recently placed the final girders of the CATS Blue Line Extension bridge that approaches the UNC Charlotte Main station.

The bridge originates near North Tryon Street and spans the Toby Creek and the Toby Creek Greenway as it nears the final station planned for campus. CATS officials note this is the longest of the 11 bridges being constructed for the Blue Line Extension.

Julie Earls, a staff auditor with the Internal Audit Department, recently obtained the certified internal auditor (CIA) designation from the Institute for Internal Auditors after passing the final test of the three-part certification process. 

Earls, who already holds the certified public accountant designation, has been with the UNC Charlotte Internal Audit Department for two years, following three years with the Office of the State Auditor.  

From Mexico to Harlem, from white liberal anti-racism to campaign fundraising, UNC Charlotte researchers will lead four intellectual journeys as part of the 2015-16 Personally Speaking Series.

Faculty authors Jürgen Buchenau, Shannon Sullivan, Jeffrey Leak and Eric Heberlig will discuss their books and how they came to write them during the sixth annual Personally Speaking Series presented by the University’s College of Liberal Arts & Sciences in conjunction with the J. Murrey Atkins Library.

A popular method of using marijuana may put young users at greater risk for burns than the more customary way of using marijuana, a UNC Charlotte professor suggests.

John Stogner, a criminal justice and criminology professor in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, assessed the dangers of a practice called “dabbing” in research recently published in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Stogner and co-author Bryan Miller of Georgia Southern University warn of the implications of this growing trend.